


Just Out of Reach

by dreamerfound



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Dreams and Nightmares, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-24
Updated: 2014-02-24
Packaged: 2018-01-13 15:54:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1232332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamerfound/pseuds/dreamerfound
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Takes place after the events of 3x11<br/>Back in the Enchanted Forest, Hook can't stop dreaming of Emma, but she's always out of reach, even in his dreams.<br/>written for <a href="http://genprompt-bingo.dreamwidth.org/profile">genprompt_bingo</a><br/>prompt: dreams and nightmares (wild card)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just Out of Reach

Hook hadn’t had a good night’s sleep since returning to the enchanted forest. Since losing Emma. He’d been sleeping on the Jolly Roger. David had offered him a place to stay on land but he was more comfortable on his ship. The Jolly Roger was his home and he didn’t want to intrude on David’s. The man was finally back with his wife, the happy couple deserved a little privacy, especially after what they’d been through. What they all had been through.

Hook wasn’t a stranger to nightmares set in Neverland. They’d been frequent while he’d been there and long after he left. Returning hadn’t helped. Except that he’d been able to help Emma. That was all that mattered. Through all the darkness, she was the one bright spot he wouldn’t let go of, even with her gone.

Night after night, he walked the dark jungle in his dreams. And every morning he woke up in a cold sweat. His heart beating heavy in his chest. The dreams were always variations on the same theme. He was following Emma, trying to find her, to catch up to her. She was always just out of his grasp. Flashes of her golden hair through the green of the jungle would catch his eye and he would give chase, but to no avail.

Sometimes the dreams were pleasant. Not nightmares at all, though they still took place in Neverland. In these dreams he would find himself pressed up against Emma. Her lips on his. His hand in her hair. Memories of their shared moment, taunting him in his sleep. A bittersweet gift from the dream world.

Sometimes when he woke up he could swear he could still smell her. It was pure torture. He missed her. Just as he promised her he would, he thought of her every day. Even though she was somewhere out in the land without magic with no memories of him. She didn’t remember their time on the beanstalk, their kiss, him helping her family. Of course it also meant that she didn’t remember the bad things he had done either. Small mercies.

He had been back in the Enchanted Forest for several months when the dreams began to change.

The first time it happened it had taken him by surprise and he had bolted awake far too quickly. The dream was fading and he had to take a moment to calm himself, so as not to let the dream slip away entirely. It hadn’t been all that different than the earlier dreams. He was still searching for Emma. He was always searching for Emma. 

He went to his desk and dipped a quill in ink. He needed to get the details down before they slipped away forever. It was the location that had changed. Instead of Neverland, he had been roaming the streets where he had once attacked the Dark One. The place called New York City in the land without magic. The world that Emma was in now. 

The streets had been both familiar and strange. He had walked the path that had taken him to the Dark One that one time, but then he was wandering through areas he didn’t remember from his adventure there. There were people in the streets but they were fuzzy and indistinct. 

Driven by the need to find his love, he hadn’t even caught a glimpse of her until he saw a flash of a woman in a red jacket with long golden hair rushing down the street. Emma! He followed her for what seemed like ages and he had almost caught up with her when she turned a corner. Hook had reached out to grab her jacket and then been rudely snatched from his dream.

After that his dreams continued to be set in that strange place. He wasn’t sure what to make of it. He wasn’t a seer and he didn’t have much faith in their kind anyways. Was Emma in New York? Was that where he would find her? Was there still hope or would she forever be just out of his reach?


End file.
